Of Black Sheep and Werewolves
by theturtlemoves
Summary: This three part fic will concentrate on three meetings between Andromeda and Remus. Alternating POV. Read and review!
1. Chapter 1

Happy Birthday Remus Lupin! Our favourite mild-mannered werewolf turns 47 on the 10th of March. This three-part fic is my tribute to him, but also an exploration of Tonks, Andromeda and the accusations made against Sirius. I wanted to call it 'Lycanthropy is teh sex', but didn't really think it would be appropriate (lol).

For another form of tribute, head on over to deviantart (link from my profile) to see the first card in my Order of the Phoenix Trading cards series. (Unofficial, of course.)

Also, I'm aware that Sirius did not have a trial, but there must have been a hearing of some kind since Dumbledore gave evidence against him. If only for formality's sake. And since there weren't many people left who could be said to be close to our dear Padfoot, Remus and Andromeda have been called to offer their own opinions.

Anyway, here's part one. Enjoy and remember: I am not JK Rowling. I merely wade in the ocean of her brilliance.

**Of Black Sheep and Werewolves**

**Part One: Giving Evidence**

_They'd never been introduced, but she knew his face. A friend of her cousin's; yet he'd always seemed so much older. There was something about that she thought that she should remember. But for the moment it eluded her._

_She watched him while they waited. This was the face, she thought, of a man who has lost everything. The blank expression of someone who has nothing left to live for. She shuddered as she reminded herself whose hands that blood was on. The war was over, but it had fallen to the young man sitting opposite her to pay the ultimate price._

_Her daughter and husband approached. She tore her eyes away and smiled weakly._

'_Still waiting, huh?'_

'_Yes. Dumbledore is still saying his piece, then they'll call for us.'_

'_Mum, who's that?' whispered the girl close to her mother's ear, nodding in the direction of the man who shared the waiting room. 'I've seen him before.'_

_The man did not look over at them, but she could almost feel him listening for her next remark._

'_His name is Remus Lupin, dear,' she told her daughter. 'He's a friend.'_

Remus stared at the floor. He knew she was watching him with pity in her grey eyes.

He didn't want her pity. He just wanted to leave.

He knew her, of course. They'd never been introduced, but it would have been hard to forget the scandal she'd caused back at Hogwarts, when he had been second year and she seventh. It had been especially difficult to ignore Sirius's mixed reaction of outrage and secret admiration (he had been young, then, and not so adamant in his opinions).

Quickly, he put that particular memory out of his mind, just as he did with every memory of Sirius that came to him.

The man was her husband. Remus remembered him too. A muggleborn. The reason for the scandal.

They had a daughter. About eight, by the look of her. She had perfectly straight blonde hair and looked nervous. She kept twisting the hem of her nice clean robes up over her knee and biting her lip. Her parents were locked in murmured conversation that Remus couldn't make out.

He stood up and made a show of examining a nearby painting. The waiting was getting to him, and he had to find something to do – _anything_ that wasn't sitting around looking sorry for himself. He did too much of that. James had always said he did too much of that.

James could be a right prat at times.

He sighed. He felt sort of … hollow. All his emotions had shut down. There was nothing – no anger, no hatred, no sadness. Just nothing. There was nothing left. It had only been a week – it felt like an eternity. While the rest of the Wizarding World celebrated, he had mourned his friends and now there was nothing left.

His hands felt heavy in his pockets. He closed his eyes for a moment, welcoming the comfort of the darkness.

Then, feeling a presence nearby, he quickly opened them again. The little blonde girl stood next to him, glancing with a light frown between the painting and his own worn face.

The expression in her dark eyes was very frank.

'Are you ill, Mister Lupin?' she asked pointedly. He shook his head.

'Just tired,' he explained. She nodded.

'I see. I'm not bothering you, am I? Mum says I'm an awful bother sometimes.'

'It's fine,' he told her. 'You're not bothering me.'

'Good. Mum's going to tell me off anyway, though. You just wait. She always tells me off when she thinks I'm bothering someone. I'm not as bad as she thinks really. Most people don't mind talking to me a bit. Are you another cousin?'

This last question took a moment to register in his mind.

'What? I … no. I'm just … just a friend.'

'Oh.' The girl sighed. 'I thought you might be related to Mum somehow. I don't know much about her family, you know. That's why we're here – because of her cousin. They say he did something terrible.'

That last part was added in a conspiratorial whisper. Remus sighed internally, wishing that he could borrow her innocence just for a moment, to think of the whole world in terms of a grand adventure with good guys and bad guys, instead of feeling like a hollow shell that had lost whatever little faith in humanity it had possessed.

In fact, he couldn't remember a time when he'd had that innocence. What with one thing and another, it had been stolen from him long ago. And now whatever had been left after that had been stolen too.

'He did,' he murmured. The girl's dark eyes were wide.

'Do you really think so?' she asked, her voice throbbing with the thrill of the scenario. 'How horrible.' Suddenly her heat-shaped face broke into a broad grin. 'I'm going to be an auror when I grow up, you know.'

'Nymphadora! Leave Mr Lupin alone!'

The girl rolled her eyes at Remus. 'I told you she'd tell me off,' she muttered, heading back to her mother.

Remus turned back to the painting, doing his best not to look as though he was listening to Andromeda Tonks' gentle admonishment of her daughter. It was just so … so _normal_, such a routine exchange. He admired Andromeda for that. Any sense of normalcy in this strange new world was a wonderful thing.

As he thought back on young Nymphadora's words – still coming up with desperate plans to distract himself from what they were all doing there – he caught a rebellious smile threatening his lips. He supposed that from a child's perspective things really could be that simple. Someone did something bad, and they went to Azkaban.

For a moment he wished that Andromeda hadn't called the girl away – the conversation, one-sided though it may have been, might have been just the thing to lift his spirits. He sighed.

'Mr Lupin? Mrs Tonks?'

He turned. A bored-looking secretary with a clipboard was standing in the doorway, surveying them all over the top of thick-rimmed spectacles.

'Yes?' Andromeda said, rising to her feet.

'They're ready for you now.'

_She went first. Her piece was short. Yes, she was the only living member of Sirius's family still on speaking terms with him. Yes, she was aware of how close he was to James Potter._

_No, she couldn't see him being involved in any dark activity. But …_

_He'd always been unpredictable._

_He'd always been difficult to understand. _

_And there was the matter of his brother, and her own sister, and various other family members that he might have had contact with._

_What more could she say? She stepped down from the podium, unable to shake the feeling that she'd let her cousin down in some way. Shouldn't it have been the other way around? Sighing, she took a seat to listen to Remus Lupin._

'_Name?'_

'_Remus John Lupin.'_

'_Relationship to the accused?'_

'_I was at school with Sirius Black, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew from 1969 to 1976. In that time we four became close friends. We remained so after we left school.'_

'_Do you think James Potter could have chosen anyone other than the accused to be his Secret Keeper?'_

'_No.'_

'_Therefore, Sirius Black was the only one who could have divulged the information of the Potter's whereabouts to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?'_

'_Yes.'_

'_And therefore, in your opinion, Sirius Black must have been involved with the organisation known as the Death Eaters?'_

_A pause._

'_Yes.'_

'_In your opinion, do you believe Sirius Black to be capable of this crime?'_

_A sigh._

'_Yes,' said Remus, barely audibly._

'_Anything more to add, Mr Lupin?'_

_Another pause._

'_No. That about covers it.'_

'_Thank you. You may stand down.'_

_He wouldn't catch her eye as he got off the podium and she wondered if he felt much the same way as she did. Where there ought to be triumph at the impending justice they had brought about, there was only a hollow feeling of guilt that they had sent someone close to them to an early grave in Azkaban. No matter what he had done, the way that Sirius Black would suffer for it had been decided by them._

_They went back out into the hall. Ted and Nymphadora were waiting still._

'_How did it go?' Ted asked gently._

_She shrugged. 'It was short.'_

_Nymphadora tugged on her mother's sleeve._

'_Is Mister Lupin all right, Mum?' she whispered. Andromeda turned to see Remus with his head in his hands, slumped over in a chair by the door to the courtroom. The small glimpse of his face which she could see through his fingers was paler even than before._

'_He's had a hard day, love,' she told her daughter quietly. 'We should just leave him alone.'_

'_Come on,' Ted said bracingly, taking the young girl's hand in his left and placing his right at the small of his wife's back. 'We should go. Dinner isn't going to cook itself, is it?'_

_Andromeda smiled and allowed herself to be led away, but she could not resist a glance back at the young man with his face in his hands. She hoped that the next time she saw him it would be under happier circumstances._


	2. Chapter 2

Here's part two! In this part, further assumptions, this time that Andromeda would have gone to see her favourite cousin after being told of his innocence. I place this in the OOTP timeline sometime after Harry goes off to school, but probably before the second half of the year, so before Christmas.

The third part of this tale might take a little longer - you guys know how I get with updates. I will try, I promise.

The second Order of the Phoenix trading card is available now at deviantart! Collect all 34!

And finally, because if I don't say it you might all start to wonder (I wish!): I am not JK Rowling. I merely surf on the internet of her imagination.

**Of Black Sheep and Werewolves**

**Part Two: Family Reunion**

_It had been many years, and it showed on his face, again much older than it should have been. At least this time she remembered why – although it was hard to forget, since Nymphadora would speak of little else. Andromeda wondered if the poor man even knew of her daughter's regard for him. It was always 'Remus this,' and 'Remus that,' and 'Remus says …' _

_He smiled wearily as they entered the room. 'I should go,' he said immediately, rising from the table. 'Far be it from me to intrude upon such an occasion.'_

'_Thank you, Remus,' she said, nodding in regard as he passed on his way out the door. Nymphadora sent him a winning smile, which he returned. Then he was gone._

_Andromeda then turned her attention to the room's other occupant. Their eyes met across the table and all the memories she'd had to repress, every single thought she'd hidden away for fourteen years came flooding back. He was worn, thin, and half as handsome as he should have been. But he was still the little boy she'd held in her arms all those years ago, as he begged her not to leave him._

_They'd known even then that they were both destined to be outcasts. _

'_Andy,' he said with a crooked smile. 'Long time no see.'_

_And she laughed, because those had been his exact words to her after he'd run away from home._

_Suddenly, without warning, her laughter turned to tears._

'_Oh Sirius,' she gasped, rushing to embrace him. 'I'm so sorry…'_

Remus stood at a window in the drawing room that contained the Black family tapestry. His thoughts were far away – so far away, indeed, that he could no longer remember exactly what they were or how they related to anything that was happening at that moment. It was a dark night, starless and lit only by the fiery orange glow of the streetlamps on Grimmauld Place.

Her footsteps were soft but still enough to draw him out of his reverie – however her presence was more than welcome and he turned to greet her with a smile.

'The family reunion goes well, I take it?' he asked.

Tonks nodded happily, her heart-shaped face stretching into a grin under her traditional pink spikes.

'I thought it best to leave them to it,' she told him. 'Besides, I could tell Mum wanted to talk about me.'

Remus chuckled softly.

'Mothers can be like that, sometimes,' he noted in his customary mild tone.

'Hmph. Tell me about it.' Tonks sighed and joined him at the window. 'What are you doing up here, anyway?'

'Just thinking,' he said, turning once again to the scene beyond the glass. 'I don't remember what about.'

They were silent for a moment.

'I'm not bothering you, am I?' Tonks asked, and for a moment Remus was reminded of a little girl who had asked that same question years ago as she had peered up at him from underneath a perfectly straight blonde fringe – which he now realised must have been her complete ideal of beauty at that point in time. He was sorely tempted to laugh.

'No, I'm glad for the company,' he replied amusedly, glad also that these were – although not precisely _better_ – at least happier times. For him at least, in terms of having friends alive and willing to speak to him, it was much more pleasant and he felt that he had it in him to be far more cordial to the young woman than he had been to the eight-year-old girl.

'Good. I'm no good by myself – I need to have someone to talk to.' She sighed and rolled her eyes in the wake of her admission. 'I'm just hopeless, really. Not fit to be called an adult.'

He chuckled. 'You are talking,' he reminded her, 'to a man who, in all his life, has been unable to hold a job any longer than ten consecutive months. In fact, if you don't count Hogwarts, it becomes a figure closer to half of that. Not to mention the same man who has been unable to get a girlfriend since puberty, and even then only attempted a misguided few weeks before giving up the whole thing as a pointless exercise.'

She shot him a withering look. 'Yes, but at least you have an excuse for those things. For example, the job thing is hardly your fault.'

'Perhaps,' he admitted. 'But I still think that mine counts as a far more hopeless case than yours.'

'All right, fair point,' she conceded with a grin. 'Do you know that you make it perfectly _impossible_ to be moody about _anything_?'

At this he laughed.

'I do try,' he said modestly, and she shot him a mock glare which thinly veiled the smile tugging irresistibly at her lips. Remus caught himself thinking that she was no less adorable now than she had been as an eight-year-old.

'Insufferable man,' she huffed, turning away in a poor attempt to hide the grin that she could not fight.

And somehow Remus was caught in the strange compulsion to wrap his arms around her and kiss her soundly – an impulse which, needless to say, he resisted with all his willpower. Placing his hands firmly in the pockets of his robes, he tried to find a new tack for the conversation.

'Your mother and Sirius were very close when they were young, as I understand it.'

'Apparently he was less petulant as a toddler,' she said with a snigger. Remus couldn't stop himself from joining her.

'I should tell him you said that,' he said, his eyes alight with amusement.

She appeared affronted. 'You wouldn't dare!' Then she lapsed into giggles, as Remus had made it clear through the mischievous expression on his face that he had no intention of doing any such thing.

'Heart and soul of a Marauder,' she noted dryly. He grinned and offered her a small, mocking bow.

'I'll take that as a compliment.'

'Somehow I thought you would.' Her dark eyes sparkled as they caught his. He thought it lucky that he had no illusions about their friendship, since he felt that if he had been even ten years younger he would have been in real danger from her quick wit and bubbly personality. As it was he could not even hope to entertain such a ridiculous notion and so was perfectly happy just to sit back and enjoy their banter.

'What are you thinking now?' she asked shrewdly. He dragged his eyes away from hers and back to the window, lest he give anything away.

'Just how much I enjoy our conversations, Tonks,' he said carefully. 'After being stuck inside with your dear cousin for too long it does tend to drag one down. Even without him, I would be unlikely to have too many moments alone with pretty young aurors, so I thank you for that. You always seem to brighten up my day.'

He wasn't look directly at her, but somehow he could feel the blush spreading across her pale cheeks and the small, embarrassed smile which twisted her lips.

'You … you think I'm pretty?'

He didn't answer, just offered her a smile that he hoped said what he couldn't, for fear of overstepping the bounds of impropriety. She seemed to get the point.

'Oh. Well … thank you, Remus.'

'Don't mention it,' he said quietly, studying the vista beyond the window once again. He hadn't wanted her to be embarrassed and yet, at the same time, there was a warm feeling in his chest that he couldn't quite account for. He thought it best to get back into the company of other people for the time being.

'Perhaps we should go down and see to this little family reunion, then,' she suggested, just as he was about to. 'If I know Sirius, he'll be trying to get Mum into some of that firewhiskey, and you don't really want to find out how bad she is at holding her liquor. Not a pretty sight.'

Remus chuckled. 'We should definitely go and rescue her, then.' Together they walked back to the kitchen in companionable silence.

'_Andy, that daughter of yours is really something, I have to say,' Sirius was saying downstairs. 'But then, we always knew you were going to be a fantastic mother.'_

_Andromeda felt herself blush._

'_Perhaps, but outrageous flattery was always your strong suit, cousin,' she laughed. He joined her and it tugged at her heart that she had gone without his laughter for so long._

_His next statement caught her off-guard, though._

'_She and Remus get on well.'_

_Their eyes caught across the table. Andromeda knew her cousin well enough to know that calculating look in his eye._

'_She does talk about him a lot,' she conceded. 'What do you know, Sirius? Is there something …'_

'_Only what his eyes tell me at this point,' Sirius said thoughtfully. 'He and I have been friends for a long time, though, so it should probably count for something. However, knowing him, he wouldn't act on it if his life depended on it.'_

_Andromeda considered this._

'_I think Nymphadora is very fond of him,' she murmured finally. Sirius nodded._

'_I think so too,' he agreed._

'_Are you worried about it?'_

_Sirius considered this._

'_Not enough right now to confront either of them about it,' he decided finally. 'But just enough to want to keep an eye on it.'_

_Andromeda nodded._

'_That sounds fair.'_

_The sound of footsteps caused them to pause and turn towards the door just as the pair in question walked in._

'_Oh, you know what this means, Remus,' Nymphadora laughed, taking in her mother and cousin's guilty faces. 'They're talking about us.'_

_Remus chuckled. Sirius and Andromeda caught each other's eye and laughed in a slightly conspiratorial way._

'_We were just discussing you, Nymphadora,' Sirius said with a sparkle in his dark eyes. 'It really is time you made a nice, respectable pureblood marriage, you know.'_

_Nymphadora made a face. Andromeda laughed and reached out a hand to hit her cousin on the shoulder. Sirius grinned and shrugged._

'_Place must be getting to me,' he joked, indicating the crumbling ruin of Grimmauld Place. 'Could've sworn I heard my dear mother's voice …and what exactly did you reply, Andy?'_

_Andromeda blushed at the memory. Remus and Nymphadora raised interested eyebrows._

'_I believe I said … now, what was it? Oh yes – 'actually, I was thinking of sticking with the nasty, disrespectful mudblood kind, thank you Auntie.''_

_The kitchen walls rang with their laughter._

'_Such defiance!' Sirius exclaimed. 'I think it's a miracle that you survived to live out your threat, cousin.'_

'_Mmm,' Andromeda agreed with a sigh. She caught her daughter's eye. 'It's amazing what people will overcome for love.'_

_Nymphadora smiled a secret, knowing smile. Andromeda saw the girl's eyes flicker for the briefest moment to the spot by the sink where Remus Lupin stood._

'_Now, where did I put that whiskey?' Sirius asked loudly, pulling himself to his feet and going to the cupboards. Nymphadora jumped into action immediately._

'_Time to be getting home, Mum?' she said, shooting a wary look in Sirius's direction. Andromeda chuckled to herself – it was nice, after all these years, for her daughter to be the one taking care of _her

'_All right, dear. Your father will be home soon.'_

_They said their goodbyes, but Andromeda was momentarily distracted while hugging Sirius by Remus Lupin's mild, thoughtful smile as he helped Nymphadora into her cloak. She pulled back and sent a pleading look at her cousin._

'_Look out for her,' she whispered._

'_Andy, she's your daughter,' Sirius murmured back, smiling. 'She can look after herself.'_


End file.
